Worried About What Each Grade Of High School Is Like?

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For those of us who are new to high school, or for those of us who are just curious about what each grade of high school above them is like, then look no further. Here is a perspective of each grade of high school.

Freshmen Year

“This year is a joke”, sophomore Jack Dong describes of freshman year.

The lack of homework and easiness of the classes allowed Jack Dong to get straight A’s and squeeze in five hours of video games before a 10 p.m. bedtime with 2 hours of swimming after school.

Numerous freshmen describe the school year so far as “easy and chill. ” One freshmen (who wishes not to be named) finds freshmen year hard, because “the teachers and the system of this school are hard. Because I always get marked absent when I am present in class and some teachers NEVER POST ASSIGNMENTS on Schoolloop.”

I cannot agree more with him, because everyone hates being marked absent and missing assignments.

Sophomore Year

Sophomore Year is sort of like middle school because it’s really similar to the transition between middle school and high school. Sophomore year is a transition in which most of us start taking our allowed honors and AP courses. Sophomore year is just freshman year with a little more homework.

Sophomore Johnathan Ho describes sophomore year in one word: “easy”. When asked to elaborate, he responded, “Sophomore year is when most people start taking weighted classes and experience why taking 6 AP classes is difficult. For me, it is easy because I am taking only 1 weighted class: Honors Chemistry … [I] still find time to play League of Legends.”

Another sophomore, Seine Ham, is taking quadruple the amount of weighted classes as Johnathan. Ham thinks sophomore year is “hard, difficult, and no sleep. Sophomore year is really difficult if you are taking 4 weighted like me, because it is basically junior year if you are taking classes like AP Calculus AB and AP Music Theory”. Ham goes to sleep “at 3 a.m. every single day because of the amount of work [he] get[s] from all [his] classes.” He admits that he actually starts his homework at 11 p.m. “because [he is] busy with extracurricular activities like piano and learning magic tricks on YouTube.”

Junior Year

As we all know or have heard, “Junior Year” is the year we receive the most work and “die”. Most juniors attribute it to their many AP and Honors classes and preparation for the PSAT and SAT.

Junior Austin Lee describes junior year as manageable. Despite the fact that Austin is taking 5 weighted classes this year, he still finds time to put in effort and time for SAT prep and other pastimes.

Lee said, “I honestly think people over-hype or overrate AP and honors classes. As long as you do the work, you should be fine. I maintained all 95’s and higher in all my weighted classes just by putting in about 2 hours of effort a day.”

Nathan Chung agrees. “There is a lot of pressure and expectations with AP courses and SAT. [You] start thinking about which college you want to go to as well as how you are going to prepare for it … Right now junior year for me is all right; it’s just a step up from sophomore year.”

Nathan Chung and Austin Lee’s advice to underclassmen was to “not get distracted, do your work, and utilize your summers wisely.”

Senior Year

Last but not least, we have senior year of high school. Senior year is often seen as the “Party Year”, “Chill Year”, “Nothing Year” etc.

Senior Akhil Sompalli, who is taking Venture and 2 classes at Dougherty said, “I think senior year really is a ‘Chill year’ but only for the second semester because that’s when everyone already knows what college they are going to so they don’t even care about the rest of school and just slack off. For me, senior year is really easy … I think the only thing that I do not like about senior year is the constant questions [of] ‘What is your SAT score?’ I feel like SAT scores start to have [an] effect on the viewpoints of you by your peers”.

Sompalli’s advice for the underclassmen are to “utilize your summers for SAT/PSAT prep and study well.”

Overall Summary and Conclusion of Each Class

Freshmen Year = Relaxed and Easy.

Sophomore Year = Somewhat Easy.

unior Year = Manageable, if you put in the time and effort and manage your time wisely.

Senior Year = Stressful if you did not do well on SAT, but “chill” after the first semester.